Twitter is for civic journalists, not vegan terrorists
Scott Stewart
Issue date: 11/4/08 Section: Opinion
I don't pay much attention to U.S. Army Intelligence - in fact, I kind of hope the U.S. Army doesn't - because the old joke of military intelligence being an oxymoron certainly held true in a recent report from the Army's 304th Military Intelligence Battalion.
The report discusses some examples of terrorist use and political use of mobile to Web and Web to mobile technologies and tactics. One of the focuses of the report is the microblogging tool Twitter.com.
Now, I've been maintaining a Twitter account for a while, and when I first read about this report, I literally LOL'd - although, surprisingly, I didn't bother to post a Tweet about it, but opted instead for a Facebook note.
At one point, the report concludes: "Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences."
In case you're wondering what these sort of undesirables are sending to each other, here's a sampling of what I would expect to see on the social networking Web site:
- Socialists: "@Congress Way to go on the bailout, guys. That's up there with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for helping us advance our cause! :)"
- Human Rights Groups: "Anybody else read that OLLAS policy brief about human rights and immigrants in Nebraska? It's outrageous so little has been done!"
- Communists: "Nebraska voters, remember to write in Socialist Workers Party candidates @Róger Calero for president and @Alyson Kennedy for veep!"
- Vegetarians: "Sign up for the Thanksgiving Fabulous Fowl-Free Feast with the Nebraska Vegetarian Society at http://vegetarian.meetup.com/509/ -- GO VEG!"
- Anarchists: "Reading Robert Paul Wolff's 'In Defense of Anarchism' for Dr. Conces' social philosophy class. Definitely suggest you check it out."
The report discusses some examples of terrorist use and political use of mobile to Web and Web to mobile technologies and tactics. One of the focuses of the report is the microblogging tool Twitter.com.
Now, I've been maintaining a Twitter account for a while, and when I first read about this report, I literally LOL'd - although, surprisingly, I didn't bother to post a Tweet about it, but opted instead for a Facebook note.
At one point, the report concludes: "Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences."
In case you're wondering what these sort of undesirables are sending to each other, here's a sampling of what I would expect to see on the social networking Web site:
- Socialists: "@Congress Way to go on the bailout, guys. That's up there with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for helping us advance our cause! :)"
- Human Rights Groups: "Anybody else read that OLLAS policy brief about human rights and immigrants in Nebraska? It's outrageous so little has been done!"
- Communists: "Nebraska voters, remember to write in Socialist Workers Party candidates @Róger Calero for president and @Alyson Kennedy for veep!"
- Vegetarians: "Sign up for the Thanksgiving Fabulous Fowl-Free Feast with the Nebraska Vegetarian Society at http://vegetarian.meetup.com/509/ -- GO VEG!"
- Anarchists: "Reading Robert Paul Wolff's 'In Defense of Anarchism' for Dr. Conces' social philosophy class. Definitely suggest you check it out."
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